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China Cracks Down in Tibet; Tensions Simmer Ahead of Olympics As Group Says 80 Were Killed

The Associated Press,Sun 16 Mar 2008 | Email this story to a friend Print this story
By TINI TRAN Associated Press Writer AP Photo/Andy Wong Watch Related Video Watch Related Video AP AUDIO Multimedia Latest News Buy AP Photo Reprints Your Questions Answered PHOTO GALLERY BEIJING (AP) -- Hundreds of armed police and soldiers patrolled the streets of Tibet's capital and enforced a strict curfew Sunday following protests against Chinese rule that turned deadly and embarrassed the country ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Lhasa was quiet but tense two days after Tibetans torched buildings and stoned Chinese residents. It was the fiercest challenge to Beijing's rule over the region in nearly two decades, and it drew sympathy protests elsewhere. Tibet's government-in-exile on Sunday put the death toll from the unrest in Lhasa at 80; Chinese state media has said 10 people died. Hong Kong Cable TV reported some 200 military vehicles, carrying 40 to 60 armed soldiers each, drove into the city center of Lhasa on Sunday. Footage showed the streets were mostly empty other than the security forces. Messages broadcast on loudspeakers warned residents to "Discern between enemies and friends, maintain order" and "Have a clear stand to oppose violence, maintain stability." "It is fairly quiet this morning. The police are patrolling the streets," said a man at Lhasa city government offices, while a Lhasa resident who refused to give her name said "the police told us not to leave our homes." The violence erupted just two weeks before China's Summer Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet. China is gambling that its crackdown will not draw an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China "to exercise restraint in dealing with these protests," while the State Department issued a travel alert for Americans in the region. Her statement also called for China to release monks and others jailed for protesting. China's official Xinhua News Agency reported at least 10 civilians were burned to death on Friday. The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan government in India said Sunday that least 80 people have been killed since outbreak of violence - a number a spokesman said had been confirmed through multiple sources who saw the bodies. Of those killed, 26 alone were killed Saturday next to the Drapchi prison in Lhasa, and five girls were killed in the town's central Tibetan neighborhood, said Tenzin Taklha, the senior aide to the Dalai Lama. China restricts access to Tibet for foreign media, making it difficult to independently verify the casualties and the scale of protests and suppression. The latest unrest began Monday on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before communist troops entered in 1950. Initially, the protests were led by Buddhist monks demanding the release of other detained monks. Their demands spiraled to include cries for Tibet's independence and turned violent Friday when police tried to stop a group of protesting monks. Pent-up grievances against Chinese rule came to the fore, as Tibetans directed their anger against Chinese and their shops, hotels and other businesses. Amid the clampdown that followed, foreign tourists in Lhasa were told to leave, a hotel manager and travel guide said, with the guide adding that some were turned back at the airport. "There are military blockades blocking off whole portions of the city, and the entire city is basically closed down," said a 23-year-old Canadian student who arrived in Lhasa on Saturday and who was making plans to leave. Even as Chinese forces appeared to reassert control in Lhasa, sympathy protests had erupted on Saturday in an important Tibetan town 750 miles away in Gansu Province. Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Buddhist monks and other Tibetans after they marched from the historic Labrang monastery and smashed windows in the county police headquarters in Xiahe, witnesses said. On Sunday, Gansu provincial Governor Xu Shousheng called the protests "a planned and organized destructive activity" and blamed the "outside Dalai group" for instigating the riots. Also in recent days, demonstrations by Tibetan exiles and their supporters sprouted up in neighboring Nepal, New York, Switzerland and Australia. Nearly 2,000 Tibetan exiles held a protest rally Sunday in Dharmsala, India, the headquarters of Tibet's government-in-exile. They waved Tibetan flags, burned Chinese flags, and held posters that said "No killings in Tibet, No Olympics in China." The Chinese government is hoping a successful Olympics will boost its popularity at home as well as its image abroad. But Beijing's hosting of the Olympics has already attracted scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems. So far, international criticism of the crackdown in Tibet has been mild. The U.S. and European Union called for Chinese restraint without any threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions. "What is happening in Tibet and Beijing's responses to it will not affect the games very much unless the issue really gets out of control," said Xu Guoqi, a China-born historian at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Saturday he opposed an Olympic boycott over Tibet. "We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing." The details emerging from witness accounts and government statements suggested Beijing was preparing a methodical campaign to deal with the unrest - one that if carefully modulated would minimize bloodshed and avoid wrecking Beijing's grand plans for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics. In Lhasa, law-enforcement agencies issued a notice offering leniency for demonstrators who surrender before the end of Monday and threatening severe punishment for those who do not. Neighborhood committees went door-to-door handing out the notices, telling locals defiance would be treated as a criminal act and hinting of rewards if they turned protesters in, said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, who talked with Lhasa residents by phone. --- On the Net: International Campaign for Tibet: Chinese official news agency (in English): © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. 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